Noel Kreiss
Noel Kreiss is a playable character and the male protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII-2. He is the last remaining human from 700 years in the future, and has traveled into the past hoping to change that fate. After meeting Lightning by chance, he saves Serah Farron from monsters and accompanies her on her quest to find her sister and change the future. In Final Fantasy 'Appearance and Personality' You want her? Then you're gonna have to go through me!" —Noel saving Serah when they meet Noel is a young man with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. He wears a black V-neck top designed with tribal patterns and a pair of angel wings on the back, along with a simple pendant. He wears a leather bracer on his left arm, a ring on his right hand, and wraps his right arm with cord. He wears large blue sirwal-style trousers with decorated hems, and low-cut sandal-like leather boots. A green pouch and hunter's knife are attached to his belt in the back, which itself is adorned with small lavender ties made of cloth. Under the angel wings on the back of Noel's top and on his dagger, there are lines of Etro script. The script on his top translates to: Seeker of Miracles at History's End -- Walker of the Realm Unseen, and the text on the dagger reads: Travel the desolate wasteland in search of hope's past. The sword Noel wields with his right hand has two blades stylized like red flames, while the sword he wields with his left hand is a simple yellow-brown blade similar to a gladius. His two-bladed sword can hold his smaller sword within the hollow metal part of the hilt. The swords combine and form a spear that also functions as a javelin. As well as the motif on his top, the silver blade in the center of Noel's red sword also has angel wings. Noel presents himself as a cocky, cheerful, confident but soft-spoken person. He is a self-sufficient hunter and a fighter. Due to the effects of a time paradox, Noel suffers from amnesia. Coming from a future where humanity is almost non-existent, he has some trouble with his speech, so he tends to speak in a straightforward manner. He is excited to explore new places and meet new people and is defined by his determination to protect others, evident by how he is protective towards Serah despite hardly knowing her. He is able to assert himself to others, and remain calm and collected when facing people with provoked anger, such as the members of NORA. In a similar manner to Lightning, Noel firmly stands by his beliefs and morals. As a remnant from his time period, Noel values life and is reluctant to hurt others unless forced to. This makes him have an initial dislike for Snow for his brash personality, always believing himself to be "the hero", and leaving Serah to fend for herself. 'Story' Noel was the second to last child to be born in the Farseer tribe that lived a nomadic existence on the ruined Gran Pulse 200 years after Cocoon came crashing down after its crystal pillar shattered. The event left the world in ruins and warfare that resulted killed the majority of mankind. After Noel's parents died, he was raised by his grandmother. When Noel was three, the seeress Paddra Nsu-Yeul was born and a man named Caius Ballad arrived in the village. Noel's grandmother explained that Caius was the seeress's Guardian and how Yeul lives away from people so they would not be tempted to use her power of foresight for evil. Despite initially hating him, Noel becomes Caius's student to become the new Guardian for Yeul. Eventually, only three people remain in the Dying World: Noel himself, Yeul, and Caius. After single-handedly killing a Behemoth, Noel is acknowledged by Caius to be strong enough become Yeul's Guardian. Learning it means he would have to kill Caius and replace him as per ancient Farseer tradition, Noel refuses to go through with it. Noel wants to take Yeul on a journey to find other people so she will not be lonely anymore, but Caius says it is a futile dream. Once learning that if the Heart of Chaos inside of Caius stops beating, the goddess Etro will die unleashing the chaos of Valhalla and destroying the past, Noel fights him and is defeated. Caius leaves for Valhalla to go through with his resolve to free Yeul from her fate. Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments Before "I can't turn back now, not anymore. In my world, you no longer exist. A world without you is no world at all." —Noel to Yeul After Caius's departure, Noel finds Yeul praying at the shrine at the end of her life. The dying Yeul promises a tearful Noel they will meet again before she disintegrates into light. Noel discovers the curse of the seeress is to see the future, but every vision eats away at her life until it kills her. Noel embarks on a journey to find Valhalla, become a warrior worthy to be recognized by Etro, and gain the power of chaos needed to change his fate. Etro answers Noel's prayers and opens her gate to him. Final Fantasy XIII-2 "You're the worst of them all. I hate your kind! You think you're everyone's protector—everyone's hero—but who do you save, really? Do you even realize how useless you are!? Do you realize what you do to the people you're supposed to protect!?" —Noel to Snow Noel falls out of Etro Gate over Valhalla and is saved by Lightning flying on Bahamut just before her aerial battle with Caius as Chaos Bahamut. Recognizing Noel from a vision she had, Lightning tells him to guide Serah to Valhalla and work together with her to change the future. She gives him a moogle named Mog to keep Serah safe and covers Noel's escape. In the process, he loses most of his memories. Arriving on the Time Gate's meteorite form in New Bodhum in 3 AF, Noel comes to Serah's aid when she is attacked by monsters. Serah tells him she saw Noel with Lightning and Mog in a dream. He tells her he is from 700 years in the future and offers to take her to Lightning. The meteorite is a Time Gate and Noel tells Serah Lightning is waiting on the other side. Noel and Serah enter the Time Gate after finding an artefact to activate it, and fly through the Historia Crux. They come out at Bresha Ruins in 5 AF, and are attacked by an invisible giant, Atlas, who retreats further into the ruins. Noel and Serah are taken into custody, but are freed by Academy scientist Alyssa Zaidelle who wants to learn about the gates and paradoxes, but as long as Atlas is around causing trouble the ruins will be closed off. Noel offers to stop Atlas with Alyssa helping him and Serah as their faraway informant. Noel and Serah resolve the paradox affecting the area by destroying Atlas and the Bresha Ruins are restored to their former glory. After finding an artefact and activating another gate, Serah has a vision and lies to Noel, saying it's nothing, although he doesn't believe her. Noel, Mog, and Serah reenter the Historia Crux and travel to Yaschas Massif in 10 AF. The area is darkened by a paradoxical solar eclipse and they meet the Academy leader, a 24-year-old Hope Estheim, who has full knowledge of Noel due to the events at Bresha five years ago. Hope and Alyssa, who is now Hope's assistant, talk about the Farseers who used to live in the Paddra ruins and a seeress named Yeul who had foretold the city-state's destruction. Noel uses one of Hope's tools, an ancient device called the Oracle Drive, and induces a vision of Lightning and the events of Day of Ragnarok ten years before. The device displays grainy images of Lightning's battle with Caius in Valhalla. Noel and Serah use the artefact given to them by Hope to resolve the paradox affecting the area, and in turn the Oracle Drive. At Oerba in 200 AF Noel, Serah and Mog activate the Oracle Drive on the old schoolhouse producing images of Serah's reunion with Lightning. Noel and Serah are confronted by Caius and Yeul, and Noel calls out her name, but she tells him she is not his Yeul. Caius explains Yeul does not exist as a single person, and that he has come to punish Serah and Noel for tampering with time. Before Caius can kill Noel Yeul steps in, saying time has already been changed, and she and Caius leave. Returning to the Yaschas Massif in 1X AF, Serah and Noel see an alternate reality where the eclipse never occurred and see the now clear images of Lightning in Valhalla, and the Oracle Drive projects images of Caius and Cocoon falling. Noel says in his time the world fell into ruin after Cocoon's fall, but Serah assures it does not have to be that way, and they could prevent Cocoon from falling. The next Time Gate they enter takes them to the Void Beyond, the realm between Time Gates. As Serah begins to doubt them ever finding her sister, Noel reassures they are one step closer to Lightning with each gate they pass through. After activating the gate in the Bresha Ruins' underground tunnels, Noel gets concerned for Serah and asks if she is having more visions, but she lies to him again. At the Sunleth Waterscape in 300 AF they witness Miniflan appear out of nowhere in a phenomenon caused by a paradox. Serah has a vision and runs off frantic. Noel follows her and they find Serah's fiancé Snow being attacked by a Royal Ripeness. Noel tells Snow he will handle things but Snow shoves him aside and the three of them fight the monster together. In a joint effort they defeat Royal Ripeness, but the Miniflan reform the monster and the party retreats at Noel's insistence. Noel criticizes Snow for wanting to stay behind and fight, telling him people who do not know when to retreat don't live long, but ultimately decides to put their differences aside and work with him. After finding an artefact to open the gate to the next location, Noel tells Snow not to do anything stupid and wait for him and Serah to return. In the Coliseum, Noel, Serah and Mog encounter the Arbiter of Time, who demands them to leave and gives them a fragment in return for doing so. Noel says Snow charges into danger thinking self-sacrifice will save everyone, but ultimately gets innocent people killed. Noel says that unlike Snow he knows the difference between fantasy and reality and asks Serah not to compare him to Snow. After Noel and Serah defeat the Faeryl and resolve the anomaly causing Royal Ripeness to continue growing, they return to Sunleth Waterscape and find Snow not waiting for them as he promised, but on the ropes in front of the big flan that has reduced in size. After defeating the giant flan for good, Noel accuses Snow of never saving anyone or thinking how he hurts the people he is supposed to protect. Snow tells Noel he has been looking after Serah, and must have protected loved ones back in his own time, but Noel says he couldn't protect them all which is why he is now all alone. Snow entrusts Serah's safety to Noel and vanishes. Noel speculates it is because Snow does not belong in this time and the paradox had been dealt with. Serah noticed a Pulse l'Cie brand on Snow's arm and as she despairs, Noel says Snow may have asked for it for the power to accomplish a mission he could not normally do. He says he hates Snow for it but understands him as well. Back in the Void Beyond, Serah asks Noel about Yeul and if she is also traveling through time. Noel believes the Farseer tribes had a girl with the same appearance and power and the name Yeul was passed down through the generations. When Serah asks how his era will change if they solve all the paradoxes, Noel believes it will be a future where he does not exist but is fine with it. The trio arrives at Academia in 400 AF where people are mysteriously transformed into Cie'th. Caius appears and calls them enemies as they are contradictions in the timeline. He says Serah and Noel were killed after learning the forbidden history within a tower two hundred years ago and have appeared before him alive and well, a paradox in itself. They find Yeul wandering the streets and being attacked by Cie'th. Noel holds the dying Yeul in his arms while Serah frets their actions are making the fate awaiting Yeul unavoidable. Before she dies, Yeul tells them Caius wasn't in the city. They use the artefact given by Yeul to travel 200 years in the past to the Augusta Tower where Noel and Serah learn Hope had created a Proto fal'Cie to keep Cocoon airborne without its pillar. Noel confesses he sensed something off about Caius in Academia, and thinks he probably wasn't the real Caius. Noel, Serah and Mog meet an artificial duplicate of Alyssa who tells them of an incident that occurred in the tower 187 years ago at 13 AF: Hope and the real Alyssa were killed as they were in the way of the Proto fal'Cie's A.I., and now that they know the tower's forbidden history they can never leave. On the tower's top level, they encounter the Yeul they met in Oerba who gives them an artefact and implores them to protect time. She reveals Caius is immortal and retains memory of all timeline events. She says Lightning disappeared because the future had changed, and if Serah and Noel solve the paradoxes the past will return to how Serah remembers it. Yeul tells them the Caius from Academia was a copy made by the Proto fal'Cie Adam, the source of the paradox, and the real Caius is in the tower, then implores they show her a new future. Noel, Mog and Serah enter a battle against Adam who keeps returning whenever defeated until Serah erases it from existence by scolding Hope out-loud for creating it. The trio returns to Academia in 4XX AF to find an alternate reality where the city is peaceful and the Proto fal'Cie is gone. They meet Hope and Alyssa who explain how Hope created the plan for the Proto fal'Cie but scrapped it after seeing Serah yelling at him through the Oracle Drive, and he and Alyssa went into the future in a time capsule he invented. They have devised a plan to build a man-made Cocoon made airborne through the use of five Graviton Cores. After finding the cores, Noel and Serah get an artefact from Alyssa. Before they leave through a new Time Gate, Hope and Alyssa come to see them off. Promising to meet again in the future, Noel, Serah and Mog enter the Historia Crux. Noel becomes separated from Serah and Mog as a result of Alyssa betraying them and having given them a booby-trapped artefact from Caius. He emerges in the Void Beyond and engages Caius, but is defeated and disappears into a dream world based on his homeworld, reliving the highlights of his past without acknowledging Serah watching and following him. When Noel is being pulled off the ground toward a light in the sky, Serah grabs hold of his arm and calls out to him and he remembers her. She tells him he was living in a dream and light is restored to the Dying World. Noel tells Serah he has regained some of his memories. He tells her a seeress's power to have visions of the future shortens their lifespan and they die young. Despite this Serah continues in their quest since it's what Lightning wants them to do. Activating the Oracle Drive at the Farseers' Relic, Noel gets closure with Yeul and vows to settle things with Caius once learning he is the one causing the paradoxes. They emerge in what appears to be New Bodhum in 700 AF. The village is a wasteland and on the beach Lightning appears from a portal saying they are in a future she could not save. Lightning says Caius plans to destroy Etro while she sleeps in Valhalla and unleash chaos into the world through an unseen doorway that opens for the souls of the departed. Noel says that would be possible if Cocoon fell. After Serah points out the world would become like Valhalla Lightning believes it is Caius's plan to create a timeless world. Lightning says that in 500 AF Caius will attempt to bring down the old Cocoon and Hope's new one in one fell swoop. Noel, Mog, Serah travel to Academia 500 AF, the time of the prophecy of Cocoon's fall. As they traverse the city they hear Yeul's voice telling them not to fight Caius and risk killing Etro. When they fight Caius, and a wormhole opens in the sky and Caius in his Chaos Bahamut form flies into it. Noel, Mog, and Serah jump into the wormhole and come out in Valhalla. Odin saves them from their fall before they face off against Caius on the beach who emerges in the form of Jet Bahamut. Noel tries to cover Serah from its blast, and as they fall into the bottomless abyss beneath Valhalla's waves of chaos, they are saved by Lightning. After Noel and Serah destroy Jet Bahamut, Noel tells Caius he still does not intend to kill him. Caius takes Noel's blade and forces it through his chest while telling him to bear the burden of the eternal paradox. As chaos leaves Caius's body, Noel laments how Caius had been consumed by sorrow and despair due to watching so many Yeuls die, and how he sought to die in Valhalla. Taking Caius's sword, Noel places it as a grave marker, hoping Caius finds peace. Noel, Serah and Mog leave Valhalla and return to Gran Pulse in 500 AF to find Hope's new Cocoon, Bhunivelze, afloat. After the gate to Valhalla closes, Serah thanks Noel but has another vision and dies in his arms. As Noel mourns for Serah the world turns dark and Mog weakens as he reveals Etro is no more. Noel remembers Caius's words about the Heart of Chaos, realizing he unknowingly played into Caius's scheme and killed the goddess as Gran Pulse and Bhunivelze are infected by chaos. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII "You're not Lightning! You can't be!" —Noel to Lightning Five hundred years after the birth of Nova Chrysalia, Noel has become infected by the chaos' influence. Feeling responsible for Serah's death and the world's current state, he now suffers from a heavy burden in his heart. Having adopted the moniker of "Shadow Hunter", Noel acts a vigilante justice fighter and punishes those who do wrong in Luxerion. Noel finds Lightning and suspects her as being an impostor as he thinks Lightning is dead. He follows Lightning through the streets of Luxerion and attacks her, forcing Lightning to battle Noel to release him from his burden. On Sora's Team Noel sometimes picks fights with Mordecai, and Muscle Man, but mostly gets excited when it's mission time. He take everything seriously when HE's serious. When not on missions, he just trains. 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